How To: The Perfect Pompadour

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Main Image Credit:
Hair by Sara, The Chapel London

A preened pompadour is a style-staple in our eyes - the epitome of sleek sophistication meets edgy and cool. So this month, we let you into the creative mind of Sara from our London salon who created this look for one of our guests.

Getting to know the guest

“My guest is a properly busy London woman - non-stop! Working from 6 am to 6 pm she has long days ahead of her, including an hour of travel time each way - always a nightmare for the hair.”

“She is always careful with her appearance - with expensive clothes, flawless makeup, perfect nails and she loves getting a facial every month. But, she was still unhappy with her hair and couldn’t work out why.”

“So then I moved on to dig into her personality a little more - who was she other than a busy businesswoman? Surprisingly she loved rock music and despite having a high-end job was always happy and loved a challenge!”

All it takes is a conversation

“The guest came into the Chapel with highlights mixing dark and lighter blonde. The look that she had; she felt was a bit dull, and didn't say much about her. The moment we started our conversation I completely realized that look didn't match at all with her personality.

“After our conversation about what she likes, which kind of life she had and a look at some visuals both of us were 100% certain about what we were going to change and we were very excited about that.”

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Perfecting the pompadour

For the colour, I used back-to-back foils to achieve that lightness. I used flash lift 30vol using Ph bonder to protect the hair and toner with 09V and 09B.”

“For the haircut, I wanted something to match the colour - a bit aggressive but sophisticated at the same time. This meant keeping it sharp on the sides and maintaining length through the upper levels to allow me to give the look some height.”

“I educated her about the products to create the look she loves without any problem at home when she styled it herself. We used Redken’s thickening lotion to blowdry and when it was dry I used powder on the root to maintain the height. To finish, I used the serum on the ends and sides to put them back and finished them with Redken’s 28 hairspray.”

So there you have it, right from the mind of the stylist Sara. Look out for more style how-tos on our blog.

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